Truth

I constantly read and study to prepare to teach my Sunday School class and to dig deeper into my own Christian faith. I very much want to present the scriptures in proper context. What the scriptures are saying to the people who they were written to, when they were written to them and what (if anything) are they saying to us today? I also study to be up on current issues that are going on within the church today.

Here is the rub… You have to find a source that you trust, a student/scholar of theology to help bring perspective. Any good college student knows you need more than one source so you need at least couple of student/scholars that you can trust but if they are basically cut from the same cloth then you pretty much defeat the whole purpose of getting perspective. If they are on opposite ends of the spectrum then you have much to weigh to make decisions. What if they both have good arguments and there is truth in both of their positions and we all know there is no gray area in the Bible it is all black and white and this is the point where your pull your hair and scream!!! WHAT IS THE TRUTH!?!?

Coming from a good conservative Baptist background I am constantly flashing to that judgment seat where you are standing alone answering for, how you treated others, how you used your talents, what you taught others, how you lived your life and what you believed. I cannot stand before God and say, “Well so and so said that this scripture in the original Greek… Aramaic… Hebrew… said…” One, I don’t speak or read any of these languages and two, even if I did where do I find the original texts?

Sometimes when you study to get the true meaning of the scriptures you find many of the things you were sure of before you started you are not so sure of anymore. The reason you studied was increase you knowledge to be more prepared to teach.

Funny thing is when Jesus was teaching great truths He took a child to His disciples and said, “Unless you become as this child you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

So here is my starting point “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”

I can build from there!

Standing Naked in the Mirror

My first visit to Romania had a profound effect on me. Our group came from Germany, the United States, Great Britain and South Africa. It was culture shock for all of us.


We saw beggars and street people and we saw poverty in a way I never dreamed of growing up in South Carolina.

This is where I learned about non-people. These are people who have no identification papers which means they cannot go to school, they cannot hold a real job, and they have no nationality. Without these papers they are a non-person.


Our orientation lecture warned us against giving money or anything to the beggars. We were warned they would surround us or try to pickpocket us or steal from us. The warning scared us to the point of us against them.


One lady with a terribly soft heart looking at these poor children could not follow the guidance to the letter so she gave them chewing gum. We watched the children walk way chewing this gum like… well… children. At that point, we saw them not as the enemy trying to steal from us or take advantage of us but as CHILDREN. We suddenly remembered why we came to Romania. I owe Sylvia Davenport more than anyone will ever know. That one act of kindness,  changed the Mission trip. 


At the end of that Mission trip and each Mission trip since I have done the standing naked in the mirror speech.

I was allowed to speak at a Youth Camp that I had attended for years. I also had the honor of being the final speaker one hour before we headed home. Over the years I watched some really great speakers try to make that one last point. The kids never really get their minds around one last sermon.  I decided to end the camp with "Standing Naked in the Mirror", this is how it goes.


I think about the street children of Bucharest, Romania. Street children are born without papers. This means they are children without an education, without a country, and in many ways without hope. So here is what I want you to do…


Close your eyes... imagine you are standing naked in a mirror.


Take away all your possessions; your computer, your cell phone, your iPods, your TVs, and your clothes. Now take away your education… take away your citizenship… take away your future plans… take away your parents and all of their possessions, education, and security. Take everything away your have earned or acquired…


Tell me what do you see standing in the mirror…


Can I tell you how many times I have heard in a low sad voice, “nothing”. This is such a sad answer.  Almost always it is one of the most popular of the kids but who knows how many are saying the same thing in their head. It is sad that these people see this as who they are. They are what they own or where they are from, or what they know, or what they hope their future will be.


This is the the good news! That person standing in the mirror with all that stripped away is the person God sent His Son to die for. Jesus did not come for our clothes or our possessions or our education or our nationality or our future plans, He came for that NAKED person standing in that mirror. He loves us so much He sent Jesus to die for us so He could spend eternity with us. That is what all of us are worth to GOD, to Yahweh, to the Creator of the Universe.


He did all of this for that NAKED person standing in that mirror.